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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0784.PDF
(gig the matter, indeed, there was a magician's wand ; it was the wand of money and skill and labour. Men have had not only money, not only skill, but the will to work to the verge of exhaustion." ' Here is, indeed, an acknowledgment from an outside critic of the magnificent all-round efforts ^ which have characterised every factory undertaking aircraft work since the first day of hostilities. It is a tribute to the patriotic energy of master and man— not forgetting that the great factor "woman" is included in " man "—alike which has been such an outstanding feature throughout the entire industry. Following his general praise, he proceeds to sum marise our military progress from the very small beginnings. At the outbreak of war, he says, Britain's total fighting strength in the air consisted of six squadrons of active aeroplanes—80 in number- manned approximately by 250 officers and 1,000 men. To-day Britain counts her ajr squadrons by tens, her officers of the Royal Flying Corps by hundreds, her machines by thousands, and her air-mechanics by tens of thousands. Before the war the military wing of the aerial fighting forces of Britain regarded itself as fortunate if it obtained for its purpose an appropria tion of £1,000,000. At the present the annual ex penditure on the Flying Corps mounts into many millions of pounds. It is probable that the country's total investment in military aircraft is not short of some £38,000,000 or £40,000,000. It may be very considerably more. In August, 1914, the Royal Flying Corps found an adequate home in six or seven rooms in the War Office building in Whitehall. The service was controlled by what was called the Military Aeronautics Directorate. At the head of this was the Director, a Brigadier-General, who had a small staff. The rooms for officer occupancy were three or four, and those for the clerical staff two or three. Now the Royal Flying Corps occupies an immense building of its own, formerly De Keyser's Royal Hotel, Black- friars. This structure contains 375 rooms, and the corps continues rapidly to grow. Next, the authorities having in the earliest days realised what an extraordinary part the aeroplane was to play in the war, Mr. Bell continues that they instantly braced themselves for a great effort. They needed officers and men and many more machines, Without a day's loss of time the authorities decided upon an immediate 500 per cent, expansion. Aero dromes were dotted all over England and Scotland, located in large flat expanses without high objects, such as trees, chimneys, and telegraph poles. Here the officers and men get their training. At these aerodromes the British have developed the officer and mechanical talent now fighting and maintaining British aeroplanes in Flanders, France, Egypt, Salonica, Mesopotamia, India, and East Africa. Among scout- Si 51 Mr. Churchill and the Hornets. SPEAKING at Chelmsford last Saturday, Mr. Winston Churchill, after dealing with the Navy and the Army, said :—* " Then there is the air. And there, too, we have reason to be satisfied and proud. The reports from the Front are unanimous in testifying to the superiority which our airmen have obtained over the enemy in the field of battle. We SEPTEM BRR 14, 1916. ing and observing agencies the aeroplane has undis puted primacy. It ascertains not only the movements but the intentions of the enemy. At present the Royal Flying Corps, in its magnificent building on the Victoria Embankment, is organised under a director-general, with two directors. One of its functions is described as that of " air organisation," and the other as that of " aircraft equipment." The Air Organisation Department is the super-brain— the creative brain—of the corps. It decides upon matters of p'olicy, strategy, tactics, and the general design of aeroplanes. The Aircraft Equipment Department has control of the material supplied to it following policy decisions by the Air Organisation. The corps has sub-departments—for example, a large contract department, a works department, an inspection department. From top to bottom the Royal Flying Corps is manned by Britons, home or Colonial. Mr. Bell then quotes an R.F.C. officer a3 authority in regard to the temporary hold which the Germans obtained in the air, and the almost immediate loss again of that command, through our irresistible efforts to become top dog once more and remain so, as wa have, ever since. This same officer puts the reason for our position of ascendancy as follows :— " Man for man, we undoubtedly are masters of the air on. the West front. This fact I attribute to the mental and physical training we give our boys in England. Our youngest pilots have done won derfully well. They learn quickly, are intensely keen, have great alertness of mind, act instinctively. We have found almost universally that men approach ing 40, unless exceptions, have about reached the age limit for this business." In conclusion the correspondent states that the British flying man is in the air every day between four and eight hours, constantly under fire. Ordinarily along the British front the flying men are in the air from two to three hours each day. The author hits upon the basic reason for our superiority when he points out that our officers are always hunting for trouble above the German lines, never declining a combat, and fighting, however outnumbered. Altogether he calculates that up to the present British flying men on the Western front must have flown, entirely over the enemy's lines, much more than a million miles. All this is very gratifying hearing from so unbiassed a source, and as there is much that we are not permitted to set out first hand, we have taken this opportunity of passing on to our readers the views of one more fortunately placed. Some day, no doubt, we may ourselves obtain opportunity for submitting a few facts without the intervention of an inter mediary. SI SI cannot but be struck by the fact that we are getting a greater mastery of the problem of dealing with the German airships than we have ever had before. We cannot but be struck by the fact that the hornets are learning to fight by night as well as by day; and you will wish me in your name to express the congratulations which we all feel, the pride we all feel, in that supreme act of new prowess of a single man, by which the young officer the other night sent to its doom one of these accursed engines of destruction." 780
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